Brigsy
Media Mogul. Instagram legend.
Been sniffing about for a clio for a while to replace my current whip. I fancied a 182 but cant be bothered with the massive road tax and low mpg on short runs (got the van and the megane for that) was looking for an early sundance yellow but they are rare, the couple i seen for sale were cheap yet miles away so started looking at other colours.
Que viewing a couple of cheapy's off gumtree that turned out to be total bags of shite which was not surprising to be honest as most of the clio's are cheap yet hammered. Went to view an orange extreme in darlington and it looked OK in the pics, when we got near it it looked rough as old boots so drove past and did not stop. I liked the colour though very similar to inferno orange. So anyway kept looking and a dci came up for sale for £100 5 miles away from me. I was not going to bother looking as i thought it needed too much work but @Sheryl_O convinced me it was worth a punt.
![Screenshot_2015-12-07-22-27-26[1].webp](https://turborenault.co.uk/data/attachments/10/10069-4cd1713f7d7a143f10ab3bc15b51336f.jpg?hash=7sDYvBr0of "Screenshot_2015-12-07-22-27-26[1].webp")
Turns out Shez knows the lad who owns it - the car had been laid up for a bit as he had been given another focus to replace it. Had a quick look in the dark, looked pretty grubby yet straight however few issues 120k miles - alternator belt was snapped due to seized alternator due to standing, no number plates as he had took his private plate off, leaking sunroof, engine a bit chuggy on idle & brakes not fantastic basic stuff etc. Lots of receipts, he paid £1800 in 2013 for it and had spent loads on it over last couple of years but got pissed off as the local renault specialist had taken his eyes out and done some substandard work. Asked him what he would take for it and £80 and he chucked in a newish pioneer mp3 cd player, even had 3/4 of a tank of diesel. Just took a punt at that amount as it was basically free so squared him up did not even test drive.
Got some plates made up and fitted on it and drove it back on battery power 5 miles which it done no issues. Noticed the engine started up straight away & ran pretty sweet when fully warmed up and the car drove well plenty of power, brakes passable handbrake was high. First job was attempt to free the alternator off, cracked it off with a load of plus gas & stihlsons. Fan belt on and boshed it in for mot which it flew through. Taxed for £30 for the year we are fully road legal at less than £200.
First job was resealing the sunroof as the headlining was pissy wet and evidence of wet seats etc. Fairly simple fix, the original seal is poor and the sunroof needs resealing to the roof. Took it off and used double glazing tape so free fix.
Next job was to sort out the rough idle, gearstick was flapping all over the place and i noticed an injector seal was chuffing on number 2 cylinder as a load of black sludge around it and the engine sounded ticky. Ordered a top engine mount and dogbone from gsf £35 and fitted a new injector sealing washer which has pretty much sorted the issue - engine sounds lovely and quiet now. Whilst i was there i cleaned the egr and boost pipes out etc easy job. I then replaced the rear brake shoes and a brake cylinder as one was weeping, brakes sorted. I then changed the oil for shell helix 5/40 and a new purflux filter. The oil filter was on mega tight i assume it had not been changed for a long time (genuine renault filter) had to really flog it off.
The rear exhaust mount had pretty much collapsed. I could not believe the price for it (£25ish from memory for genuine) and it looked shite so i chopped an old poly exhaust rubber up and forced it in tight to the metal part of the mount job done.
![20151220_140148_001[1].webp](https://turborenault.co.uk/data/attachments/10/10073-b282a8c4024d704a4451bc8fa5eaf4e4.jpg?hash=ftpfm5lssM "20151220_140148_001[1].webp")
With most of the snagging done i turned my hand to the bodywork. First thing was to sort out the front drivers side headlamp as it was going yellow, passenver side looked ok pretty new. I wet sanded it with 800 grit,followed by 1200 & 1500, then used autosol as i have ran out of cutting compound. Came up pretty sweet.
As bought
800 Grit
1500 Grit ( i did wonder if this would ever look OK at this point as no buffer lol)
Job done after Autosol. Coated with collinite to protect
The outside was grubby but pretty straight, bonnet is rusty along the front edge and needs replacing and half the splitter is missing off the bumper. Give it a good scrub to get the mould off - followed by clay bar to get loads of tar off the front arches. Had to work fast due to short daylight hours so give it a coat of Autoglym SRP to fill in some swirls and a single coat of Collinite 476s all done in 2 hours. Not had chance to restore the black trims yet still on the to do list/ @Sheryl_O on the interior clean (needs a wet vac to finish - this weeks job) but came up well really.
In Summary
£80 for the car (3/4 of a tank diesel)
£25 for plates & Fan belt
£70 mot & tax
£35 for engine mounts
£30 rear brakes
£4 for injector sealing washers
£35 for Oil & filter
Egr cleaning etc, exhaust mount, 3 days work in total - repairs/cleaning/checking car over generally/resealing sunroof etc free..
£279 for a cheap tidy flog about. To be continued
Que viewing a couple of cheapy's off gumtree that turned out to be total bags of shite which was not surprising to be honest as most of the clio's are cheap yet hammered. Went to view an orange extreme in darlington and it looked OK in the pics, when we got near it it looked rough as old boots so drove past and did not stop. I liked the colour though very similar to inferno orange. So anyway kept looking and a dci came up for sale for £100 5 miles away from me. I was not going to bother looking as i thought it needed too much work but @Sheryl_O convinced me it was worth a punt.
Turns out Shez knows the lad who owns it - the car had been laid up for a bit as he had been given another focus to replace it. Had a quick look in the dark, looked pretty grubby yet straight however few issues 120k miles - alternator belt was snapped due to seized alternator due to standing, no number plates as he had took his private plate off, leaking sunroof, engine a bit chuggy on idle & brakes not fantastic basic stuff etc. Lots of receipts, he paid £1800 in 2013 for it and had spent loads on it over last couple of years but got pissed off as the local renault specialist had taken his eyes out and done some substandard work. Asked him what he would take for it and £80 and he chucked in a newish pioneer mp3 cd player, even had 3/4 of a tank of diesel. Just took a punt at that amount as it was basically free so squared him up did not even test drive.
Got some plates made up and fitted on it and drove it back on battery power 5 miles which it done no issues. Noticed the engine started up straight away & ran pretty sweet when fully warmed up and the car drove well plenty of power, brakes passable handbrake was high. First job was attempt to free the alternator off, cracked it off with a load of plus gas & stihlsons. Fan belt on and boshed it in for mot which it flew through. Taxed for £30 for the year we are fully road legal at less than £200.
First job was resealing the sunroof as the headlining was pissy wet and evidence of wet seats etc. Fairly simple fix, the original seal is poor and the sunroof needs resealing to the roof. Took it off and used double glazing tape so free fix.
Next job was to sort out the rough idle, gearstick was flapping all over the place and i noticed an injector seal was chuffing on number 2 cylinder as a load of black sludge around it and the engine sounded ticky. Ordered a top engine mount and dogbone from gsf £35 and fitted a new injector sealing washer which has pretty much sorted the issue - engine sounds lovely and quiet now. Whilst i was there i cleaned the egr and boost pipes out etc easy job. I then replaced the rear brake shoes and a brake cylinder as one was weeping, brakes sorted. I then changed the oil for shell helix 5/40 and a new purflux filter. The oil filter was on mega tight i assume it had not been changed for a long time (genuine renault filter) had to really flog it off.
The rear exhaust mount had pretty much collapsed. I could not believe the price for it (£25ish from memory for genuine) and it looked shite so i chopped an old poly exhaust rubber up and forced it in tight to the metal part of the mount job done.
With most of the snagging done i turned my hand to the bodywork. First thing was to sort out the front drivers side headlamp as it was going yellow, passenver side looked ok pretty new. I wet sanded it with 800 grit,followed by 1200 & 1500, then used autosol as i have ran out of cutting compound. Came up pretty sweet.
As bought
800 Grit
1500 Grit ( i did wonder if this would ever look OK at this point as no buffer lol)
Job done after Autosol. Coated with collinite to protect
The outside was grubby but pretty straight, bonnet is rusty along the front edge and needs replacing and half the splitter is missing off the bumper. Give it a good scrub to get the mould off - followed by clay bar to get loads of tar off the front arches. Had to work fast due to short daylight hours so give it a coat of Autoglym SRP to fill in some swirls and a single coat of Collinite 476s all done in 2 hours. Not had chance to restore the black trims yet still on the to do list/ @Sheryl_O on the interior clean (needs a wet vac to finish - this weeks job) but came up well really.
In Summary
£80 for the car (3/4 of a tank diesel)
£25 for plates & Fan belt
£70 mot & tax
£35 for engine mounts
£30 rear brakes
£4 for injector sealing washers
£35 for Oil & filter
Egr cleaning etc, exhaust mount, 3 days work in total - repairs/cleaning/checking car over generally/resealing sunroof etc free..
£279 for a cheap tidy flog about. To be continued
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there are some nice little cars out there for nothing at the moment if your prepared to do a little bit of graft. I think its due to the low price of scrap £25 a ton around here - when it was £300 a ton you could never find stuff like this as it went straight across the weighbridge but at the moment ebay/gumtree etc are full of stuff like this. The previous owner was going to scrap it but they wanted money to take it away! from what i gather the average person just chucks a cheapo car away when a few basic repairs are needed. Granted the repair bill could be astronomical if you got a garage to do the work.
checked out the switch and it seemed ok as well as wiring etc so i assumed the regulator was dead. I then pulled the doorcard off and stripped down the motor which was in fair condition with some burning to the commutator. The brushes were ok, cleaned it all up and refitted. Still no worky so pulled the switch apart which revealed once decent current was across the micro switches it was arcing out all over the place. So went to the scrapyard and got a switch and fixed all that fecking about for nothing however the motor works superb now.
. My current whip 307 hdi is £200 a year to insure and its a higher insurance group, i have nigh on ten years NCB & mid 30's so should be loads cheaper. The car is not on the book so no idea why its coming in high. Unsure whether to move it on or not yet? Going to think about it for a few days and go from there.
so anyway i thought its not too far (360mile round trip) feck it i will take a gamble as its not a lot of fuel just time. Roadtrip! Filled the trusty steed 307 with £40 worth of derv and set off with the mrs riding shotgun and a memory stick full of biggie/tupac/nwa.
